Please Note: All Antennas and Relays have a Combinability Exponent value of 0.75 except for the Communotron 16 having a value of 1 and the Communotron 16S having a value of 0. These values can be found in the part config files.

=Signal Strength=

=Signal Strength=

Revision as of 18:09, 14 October 2016

CommNet is a relay and control communication system implemented first in KSP 1.2 pre-release. Probes now have limited attitude and thrust control if they are not linked back to Kerbin or a control point via a relay antenna. [1] Antennae have limited range from which control and transmission of science data is possible.

Tracking Station Level

5k (Probes / Manned)

500k (Communotron 16)

5M (HG-5 High Gain)

2G (DTS-M1 / RA-5)

15G (HG-55 / RA-50)

100G (Communotron 88-88 / RA-100)

1 (2G)

3.1Mm (halfway to Mun)

31.6Mm (Minmus)

100Mm

2Gm

5.5Gm

14.1Gm

2 (50G)

~15.8Mm (Mun)

~158Mm (Deep Space)

500Mm

10Gm (Duna if close)

27.4Gm (Duna/Dres always, Jool if close)

70.7Gm

3 (250G)

35.4Mm (halfway to Minmus)

354Mm

1.1Gm

22.4Gm (Dres if close)

61.2Gm

158Gm (Jool always, Eeloo if close)

Contents

Range Calculation

Each antenna has a "power rating" measured in meters. It ranges from 5k (5000m) for integrated default antennas available in every spacecraft, to 100G (100 billion meters) for the largest dishes.
A connection can be established between two stations (craft to ground, or craft to relay) when the square root of the product of the strength ratings is greater than the distance between the two objects.
When a craft has multiple, combinable antennas, the antenna's power ratings stack in a way that provides a diminished return using the following formula:

The range can then be calculated as stated above by taking the square root of the product of the two Antenna Strength ratings

- Range = SQRT ( Antenna Strength 1 * Antenna Strength 2 )

Please Note: All Antennas and Relays have a Combinability Exponent value of 0.75 except for the Communotron 16 having a value of 1 and the Communotron 16S having a value of 0. These values can be found in the part config files.

Signal Strength

To obtain your signal strength for a link at any given distance between the two points it is mostly the relative distance between the two points. The true calculation requires plotting the relative distance on a Bezier curve with they keys '0 0 0 0' and '1 1 0 0' to obtain the true Signal Strength. This can be calculated as follows:

DSN Strength

Each upgrade of the tracking center improves the strength of Kerbin's terrestrial-based Deep Space Network (DSN). Based on the provided figures, the Level 1 tracking station has an antenna strength of 2G, Level 2 is 50G, and Level 3 is 250G.

Science Transmission

The same document from the KSP developers states that science returned via a relay satellite will have a bonus applied (some fraction of the difference between the recovery and transmission science potential). The exact amount of the bonus depends upon signal strength.
The amount of available Science Points you can transmit back to the KSC depends on your Signal Strength and the total potential value of the experiment.

Any experiments transmitted will be multiplied by the percentage of your connection, therefore an EVA Report high over the Mun (24 Science) at a Signal Strength of 68% would allow you to transmit a total of 16 Science points back to the KSC.